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Beneficial Use of Plastic Bottles in Sustainable Building Construction

Abstract

On average Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. Yearly, 14 billion pounds of trash is compiled and much of it is plastic. More than 4.8 million tons of plastic is dumped into the ocean every year, thus, contaminating our waters and shores with garbage and endangering sea lives. In an attempt to recycle plastic bottles and keep less waste from accumulating, there have been building projects that incorporated plastic bottles in building construction. From Oscar Mendez, compressing plastics down to brick-like materials, the plastic bottle village created by Robert Bezeau, or from communities in Nigeria using plastic bottles and mud to create a building that is both bullet and fire proof, all prove that this material can be integrated with our construction methods. This study investigates how plastic bottles form structurally sound buildings through using different construction methods. To showcase its application, a load bearing wall is under design and testing for sustainable building construction. By doing so, it exemplifies the strength and durability of structure built using the non-conventional construction material.

Modified Abstract

Yearly, 14 billion pounds of trash is compiled and much of it is plastic. More than 4.8 million tons of plastic is dumped into the ocean every year, thus, contaminating our waters and shores with garbage and endangering sea lives. In an attempt to recycle plastic bottles and keep less waste from accumulating, there have been building projects that incorporated plastic bottles in building construction. From Oscar Mendez’s projects, to the plastic bottle village created by Robert Bezeau, or from communities in Nigeria using plastic bottles to create a building that is both bullet and fire proof, all prove that this material can be integrated with our construction methods. This study investigates how plastic bottles form structurally sound buildings through different construction methods.

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Architecture

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Beneficial Use of Plastic Bottles in Sustainable Building Construction

On average Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. Yearly, 14 billion pounds of trash is compiled and much of it is plastic. More than 4.8 million tons of plastic is dumped into the ocean every year, thus, contaminating our waters and shores with garbage and endangering sea lives. In an attempt to recycle plastic bottles and keep less waste from accumulating, there have been building projects that incorporated plastic bottles in building construction. From Oscar Mendez, compressing plastics down to brick-like materials, the plastic bottle village created by Robert Bezeau, or from communities in Nigeria using plastic bottles and mud to create a building that is both bullet and fire proof, all prove that this material can be integrated with our construction methods. This study investigates how plastic bottles form structurally sound buildings through using different construction methods. To showcase its application, a load bearing wall is under design and testing for sustainable building construction. By doing so, it exemplifies the strength and durability of structure built using the non-conventional construction material.